Those of you old enough probably know who Pat Boone is. If you don't, a quick recap: He was the whitest of whitebread pop singers, and in the late 1950's, second only to Elvis in production of hit records. I think all-time he's only a handful of slots behind the Beatles.
The fifties have a lot to answer for.
Boone was and is deeply religious, and circumspect in his choice of music and movies. He once refused an onscreen kiss because the actress was married, and elected not to be in a movie with Marilyn Monroe because, well ... you know ...
On the plus side, while something of a joke among rock fans -- his version of Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti" comes immediately to mind -- his covers of black R&B singers did a lot to get them noticed. White people heard Boone doing covers of songs by folks they didn't listen to in most parts of the country, and never had a clue said music was done by Neegros. Certainly not from how Pat sang 'em.
He's also Debby Boone's father. ("You Light Up My Life.")
About fifteen years ago, he did an album of heavy metal covers. The YouTube video embed code is disabled, but if you click here, you can hear it over a montage of Pat ...
Enjoy. Or ... not ...
2 comments:
Oh god Steve, now I am going to have to go listen to some Kraftwerk to get that out of my ears.
In all seriousness, he actually has a pretty good voice, very smooth and good control. I am quite amused by the big band cubano arrangement.
Doesn't change the fact that it is awful. But I think that may be the first time I've actually listened to Pat Boone and I can say that it was better than I expected.
Not going to go out of my way to do it again mind you.
I just enjoyed the "fence wars" he had with Ozzie. Then he went and did "Crazy Train!"
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